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Block E Applebees closes

A small sign posted on the skyway entrance announced that the restaurant’s last day of business was Sunday, March 13.

Crews spent the morning of March 14 dismantling the décor, removing framed photographs from the walls and stacking them in a corner. Workers also lifted wooden tabletops from the booths. According to one crewmember, the bric-a-brac will be placed in storage, where it will await redistribution to other Applesbees locations.

The restaurant needs to vacate its space on the skyway level of Block E by this Thursday. Applebees originally debuted in Block E in April of 2003.

The closure comes one year after the Block E GameWorks folded, leaving a glaring vacancy on the corner of Hennepin and 7th Street, and rounds out a twelve-month period that also witnessed the shuttering of Hooters, another big Block E tenant.

Prior to Applebees' closure, the vacancy rate at Block E was 28 percent.